Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C) Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C) Sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon (reigning c. 1792-50 BC), noted for his surviving set of laws, once considered the oldest promulgation of laws in human history. Like all the kings of his dynasty except his father and grandfather, Hammurabi bore a tribal Amorite name belonging to the Amnanum. Only scanty information exists about his immediate family: his father, Sin-muballit; his sister, Iltani; and his firstborn son and successor, Samsuiluna, are known by name. When Hammurabi succeeded Sin-muballit about 1792 BC he was still young, but, as was customary in Mesopotamian royal courts of the time, he had probably already been entrusted with some official duties in the administration of the realm. In that same year Rim-Sin of Larsa, who ruled over the entire south of Babylonia, conquered Isin, which served as a buffer between Babylon and Larsa.

Rim-Sin later became Hammurabi's chief rival. The reconstruction of Hammurabi's rule is based mainly on his date formulas (years were named for a significant act the king had performed in the previous year or at the beginning of the year thus named). These show him engaged in the traditional activities of an ancient Mesopotamian king: building and restoring temples, city walls, and public buildings, digging canals, dedicating cult objects to the deities in the cities and towns of his realm, and fighting wars. His official inscriptions commemorating his building activities corroborate this but add no significant historical information. The size, location, and military strength of the realm left to Hammurabi made it one of the major powers in Babylonia. That Hammurabi was not strong enough to change the balance of power by his own will is well expressed in a diplomatic report: "There is no king who is powerful for himself: with Hammurabi, 'the man of Babylon,' go 10 or 15 kings, so with Rim-Sin, 'the man of Larsa'; with Ibalpiel, 'the man of Eshunna,' . . .

go 20 kings." Hammurabi inherited one major direction for his political activity: to succeed in controlling the Euphrates watersimportant in an area that depended exclusively on irrigation agriculture. Such a policy naturally led to conflicts with the kingdom of Larsa, which was situated in a disadvantageous downstream position. This policy, begun by Hammurabi's great-grandfather but most forcefully and partially successfully pursued by his father, Hammurabi himself took up in 1787 BC, near the beginning of his reign, when he conquered the cities Uruk (Erech) and Isin, held by Rim-Sin, and clashed again with Rim-Sin the year after. But, according to Hammurabi's date formulas and contemporary diplomatic correspondence, these operations led no further because Hammurabi shifted the direction of his military operations in 1784 toward the northwest and the east. For almost 20 years thereafter no significant warlike activity is reported. These years were characterized by changing coalitions among the main kingdomsMari, Ashur, Eshnunna, Babylon, and Larsa.

Hammurabi used this time of uneasy stalemate to fortify several cities on his northern borders (1776-1768 BC). The last 14 years of Hammurabi's reign were overshadowed by continuous warfare. In 1764 Hammurabi dealt with a coalition of Ashur, Eshnunna, and Elamthe main powers east of the Tigriswhose position threatened to block his access to the metal-producing areas of Iran. It can be assumed, however, that Hammurabi took the initiative in moving against Rim-Sin of Larsa in 1763 BC.

Few particulars are reported about this latter war, but it seems that Hammurabi successfully employed a stratagem that apparently had been used before by Sin-muballit against Rim-Sin: damming up the water of a main watercourse and then either releasing it suddenly to create a devastating flood or simply withholding itthe main resource of lifefrom the enemy's people (that Hammurabi used this device to bring about Rim-Sin's defeat can be assumed from the fact that in 1760 he rebuilt a canalthe western branch of the Euphratesto facilitate the resettlement of the uprooted population that lived along its course before this war). The final siege of Larsa, Rim-Sin's last stronghold, lasted for several months. It was the last step to Hammurabi's victory. In 1762 BC Hammurabi again engaged in hostilities with the eastern powers. It is unknown whether this was a protective move on his part or a reaction on theirs to the change in the balance of power.

The motives that led Hammurabi in 1761 BC against his longtime ally, Zimrilim, king of Mari, 250 miles (400 km) upstream from Babylon on the Euphrates, remain enigmatic. Two explanations are likely: it was either again a fight over water rights or an attempt by Hammurabi to gain control over Mari's excellent location at the crossroads of the ancient Middle East's overland trade. Two years later Hammurabi had to direct his armies eastward for a third time (1757-55 BC). The final destruction of Eshnunna during this campaignagain achieved by damming up the watersmost likely proved to be a pyrrhic victory, because it removed a buffer zone between Babylonia proper and the peoples of the east (among them probably the Kassites, who were to take over in Babylonia 160 years hence). During his last two years, Hammurabi thus had to concentrate on the construction of defense fortifications.

By this time he was a sick man, and he died about 1750 BC, with the burden of government already being carried by his son, Samsuiluna. Changes affecting nearly all spheres of life took place during Hammurabi's reign. They were aimed at the consolidation of conditions resulting from the transformation of a small city-state into a large territorial state. His letters show that he personally engaged in the details of implementing these changes and in the daily routine of the administration of his realm. This personal style is characteristic for Hammurabi and also for other contemporary rulers. Hammurabi's lawsnot a law code in the modern sensemust also be considered as an expression of his concern to be a just ruleran ideal pursued by Mesopotamian kings at all times. That Hammurabi failed to set up an effective bureaucratic system may be attributed to his personal style in the governance of his realm and the fact that he was fully engaged in wars during the last part of his reign. The lack of effective administration might have been one reason for the fast deterioration after his death of what he had achieved in military terms.

When Hammurabi conquered southern Babylonia he did not follow the century-old tradition of having himself deified during his lifetime. There is reason to believe that this was his personal decision, probably based on a different view of the nature of kingship, setting a precedent for the concept of kingship until Hellenistic times. Hammurabi's eminence in Mesopotamian history has long been exaggerated. It was first based on the discovery of his laws but subsequent discoveries of older, though less voluminous, collections of laws have led to a less enthusiastic view. Moreover, the frequently noted resemblance between Hammurabi's laws and the Mosaic laws is now seen in terms of common heritage rather than as proof for direct dependency. Hammurabi is also credited with bringing Mesopotamia again under a single rule. Although there existed certain trends toward such unificationparticularly expressed in the themes depicted on contemporary seals and in the apodoses of omens evoking a past when such kings as Sargon of Akkad and Shulgi ruled Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Seait is doubtful that unification was the only motive for Hammurabi's conquests.

The lasting achievement of Hammurabi's rule was that the theatre of Mesopotamian history, which had been in the south from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, was shifted to the north, where it remained for more than 1,000 years. (Encyclopaedia Britannica Article) Johannes M. Renger Hammurabi - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Google Hammurabi’s Kingdom Hammurabi was the sixth king in the Babylonian dynasty, which ruled in central Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) from c.1894 to 1595 B.C. His family was descended from the Amorites, a semi-nomadic tribe in western Syria, and his name reflects a mix of cultures: Hammu, which means “family” in Amorite, combined with rapi, meaning “great” in Akkadian, the everyday language of Babylon. In the 30th year of his reign Hammurabi began to expand his kingdom up and down the Euphrates, overthrowing Larsa, Eshunna, Assyria and Mari until all of Mesopotamia under his sway. Did You Know?

Hammurabi’s Code includes many harsh punishments, sometimes demanding the removal of the guilty party’s tongue, hands, breasts, eye or ear. But the code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of the accused being considered innocent until proven guilty. Hammurabi combined his military and political advances with irrigation projects and the construction of fortifications and temples celebrating Babylon’s patron deity Marduk. The Babylon of Hammurabi’s era is now below the water table, and whatever archives he kept are long dissolved, but clay tablets discovered at other ancient sites reveal glimpses of the king’s personality and statecraft. One letter records his complaint of being forced to provide dinner attire for ambassadors from Mari just because he’d done the same for some other delegates: “Do you imagine you can control my palace in the matter of formal wear?” Hammurabi’s Code The black stone stela containing Hammurabi’s Code was carved from a single, four-ton slab of diorite, a durable but incredibly difficult stone for carving. At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law—symbolized by a measuring rod and tape—from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice.

The rest of the seven-foot-five-inch monument is covered with columns of chiseled cuneiform script. The text, compiled at the end of Hammurabi’s reign, is less a proclamation of legal principles than a collection of precedents set between prose celebrations of Hammurabi’s just and pious rule. The 282 edicts are all written in if-then form. For example, if a man steals an ox, he must pay back 30 times its value. The edicts range from family law to professional contracts and administrative law, often outlining different standards of justice for the three classes of Babylonian society—the propertied class, freedmen, and slaves. A doctor’s fee for curing a severe wound would be 10 silver shekels for a gentleman, 5 shekels for a freedman and two shekels for a slave. Penalties for malpractice followed the same scheme: a doctor who killed a rich patient would have his hands cut off, while only financial restitution was required if the victim was a slave.

Hammurabi’s Code provides some of the earliest examples of the doctrine of “An eye for an eye.” Rediscovery of Hammurabi’s Code In 1901 Jacques de Morgan, a French mining engineer, led an archaeological expedition to Persia to excavate the Elamite capital of Susa, more than 250 miles from the center of Hammurabi’s kingdom. There they uncovered the stela—broken into three pieces—that had been brought to Susa as spoils of war, likely by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the mid-12th century B.C. The stela was packed up and shipped to the Louvre in Paris, and within a year it had been translated and widely publicized as the earliest example of a written legal code—one that predated but bore striking parallels to the laws outlined in the Hebrew Old Testament. The 1935 U.S. Supreme Court building features Hammurabi on the marble bas relief of historic lawgivers that lines the south wall of the courtroom.

Although other subsequently-discovered Mesopotamian laws, including the Sumerian “Lipit-Ishtar” and “Ur-Nammu,” predate Hammurabi’s by hundreds of years, Hammurabi’s reputation remains as a pioneering lawgiver who worked—in the words of his monument—”to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak and to see that justice is done to widows and orphans.” Tags Hammurabi, King of Babylon © thenagain info All rights reserved. Hammurabi, King of Babylon Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) was king of Babylonia, and the greatest ruler in the first Babylonian dynasty. He extended his empire northward from the Persian Gulf through the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys and westward to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. After consolidating his gains under a central government at Babylon, he devoted his energies to protecting his frontiers and fostering the internal prosperity of the empire. Back to Early Mesopotamian Civilizations Chronology Hammurabi ruled, Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, what is today known as Iraq.

He is credited with uniting most of this area under one extensive empire for the first time since Sargon of Akkad did so in about 2300 BC. To do this, Hammurabi waged several military campaigns. The purpose of most of his operations was to gain control of the Tigris and Euphrates waters, on which agricultural productivity depended. Other campaigns were over control of trade routes or access to mines in Iran. The king began his military campaigns in 1787 BC by conquering the cities of Uruk and Isin to the south. He then turned his attention to the northwest and east. The power of Assyria prevented him from achieving any significant results, and for 20 years no major warlike activity was reported. He used the time to fortify cities on his northern borders. The last 14 years of Hammurabi's reign were overshadowed by war. In 1763 he fought against a coalition east of the Tigris that threatened to block access to metal-producing areas in Iran. The same year he conquered the city of Larsa, which enabled him to take over the older Sumerian cities in the south.

He followed this victory with the conquest of Mari, 250 miles (400 kilometers) upstream on the Euphrates. During his last two years the king concentrated on building defensive fortifications. By this time he was a sick man, and the government was in the hands of his son, Samsuiluna. Hammurabi effected great changes in all spheres of life, mostly from the transformation of a small city-state into a large empire. Most of his rule was given to the establishment of law and order, religious buildings, irrigation projects, and defense works. He personally oversaw the administration of government. In doing so he failed to create a permanent bureaucratic system. This failure was a primary reason for the rapid deterioration of his empire after his death. Hammurabi's accomplishments are believed by historians to be exaggerated. This is partly because of the fame he gained when his law code was discovered. His lasting achievement was to shift the main theater of Mesopotamian history northward, where it remained for 1,000 years. Throughout his long reign, he personally supervised navigation, irrigation, agriculture, tax collection, and the erection of many temples and other buildings.

Although he was a successful military leader and administrator, Hammurabi is primarily remembered for his codification of the laws governing Babylonian life called the Code of Hammurabi . Questions : what is hammurabi king, who was the leader of babylon who is hammurabi and why is he important, who was hammurabi interesting facts Bibliography: Bottero, Jeans, Cassin, Elena, and Vercoutter, Jean (eds.), The Near East: The Early Civilizations (1967). Gadd, Cyril J. "Hammurabi and the End of His Dynasty," Cambridge Ancient History, rev. ed., vol. 2, ch. 5 (1965) Edited by: Keren Gelfand Hammurabi - King - Biography.com Hammurabi Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon, is best known for the development of a code of laws to regulate Mesopotamian society. IN THESE GROUPS C. 1810 BC Synopsis Hammurabi was born circa 1810 BC in Babylon, modern day Iraq.

The lasting contribution of Hammurabi on Babylonian society was his set of laws written on twelve stones and displayed publicly for all to see, the most common being, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth." The laws are commonly known as Hammurabi's Code. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information Hammurabi, 1810-1750 BC Share This Page Hammurabi, 1810-1750 BC Ancient Babylon was a city that lay on the delta of two rivers of what is modern Iraq, in an area known as Mesopotamia (a Greek word for "between the rivers"). It was one the first flowers of that great experiment of humanity: civilization. The growing pains were miraculous in the result as by living together, cooperating, and submitting all to the rule of one of them, man suddenly found that they could flourish (see Origin of Law ). The success of early communities begat others and soon, by 3,800 BC, a whole network of official "royal" trade networks ran between large cites that dotted the region, the people known as the Sumerians.

They had developed agriculture and irrigation (including the water wheel), language, simple math including fractions and positional notation (although they managed without a concept for zero until 350 BC), and dabbled in law, mostly an unwritten mass of wisdom passed from generation to generation. In 1810 BC, in just another royal birth for Babylon but a seminal event for mankind, Hammurabi was born to the then-king of Babylon Sin-muballit, who had, through war, consolidated under Babylon rule all cities within 50 miles, a virtual little kingdom but surrounded by others, some much larger [note: the Louvre gives Hammurabi's year of birth as 1792 BC]. Babylon was in a state of constant military alert as it fought with neighboring cities for control of fertile land. Even the famous biblical city of Ur, which lay 100 miles to the South, played this game. Hammurabi (pictured) took the throne when his father died in about 1792 BC. and a legal system well on its way as the precursor of modern law.

Pre-Hammurabi contracts between merchant and consumer or between merchants, inscribed in stone, are exhibited by many museums around the world. His first major challenge occurred in 1766 when the powerful kingdom to the Southeast, Elam invaded the plains and crept towards Babylon. Hammurabi at first tried an alliance with Babylon’s southern neighbor (and buffer territory) Larsa but soon opted instead to simply take it over, which was completed by 1763 BC. Then, Babylon turned his invigorated armies North and soon ruled over the entire plain, including Ur. Hammurabi gets most of the credit for law and much is well-deserved for the dabbling ended and codification began with him. He polished Babylonian justice, mostly inherited from tribal customs, perhaps the most important of which was the freedom to, and state enforcement of, contract . In the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Claude Johns wrote "(C)enturies of law-abiding and litigious habitude had accumulated in the temple archives of each city vast stores of precedent in ancient deeds and the records of judicial decisions, and that intercourse had assimilated city custom.

The universal habit of writing and perpetual recourse to written contract even more modified primitive custom and ancient precedent. "Provided the parties could agree, the Code left them free to contract as a rule. Their deed of agreement was drawn up in the temple by a notary public, and confirmed by an oath 'by god and the king'. It was publicly sealed and witnessed by professional witnesses, as well as by collaterally interested parties. The manner in which it was thus executed may have been sufficient security that its stipulations were not impious or illegal. Hammurabi, once he had conquered a territory he sent detailed instructions to his governor concerning the administration of the new province, religion observances, the deployment of troops, taxation (aka ‘tribute’), public works such as a canal system, and any adjustments to the official calendar. But far more importantly, Hammurabi saw the need to extend Babylon laws and customs to his new territories and for that, he commissioned the writing of a code of laws to guide the people and define their duties. This Code was drawn up on a least one set which has mostly survived to this day; 44 of the 49 columns of the legislation are set out on a monument about the height of a person.

The top of the monument is pictured. In A History of Egypt, British authors King and Hall wrote: "This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice had been developed in Babylonia in the time of (Hammurabi). From the contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular judges and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the Code itself was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to a great body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed the authority conferred by custom and tradition.... "After a case had been heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the recorded decision was involved. "Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision he was severely punished....

"A further check upon injustice was provided by the custom of the elders of the city, who sat with the judge and assisted him in the carrying out of his duties; and it was always open to a man, if he believed that he could not get justice enforced, to make an appeal to the king." The Code was discovered by archaeologists in Susa, Iran in 1901. Now at the Louvre Museum in Paris, it was astonishingly avant garde because it guaranteed Babylonians a gamut of legal rights which would ebb and flow with future emulators - but not improved upon - for three thousand years. Hammurabi’s integrity and hands-on justice, is evidenced from the many letters recovered from the period. From King and Hall op.cit. "The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his officers who were convicted of taking bribes. When he was convinced of the justice of any claim, he would decide the case himself and send instructions to the local authorities to see that his decision was duly carried out.

"In cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and powerful he might be." No law can be effective without an enforcement apparatus behind it, government. Hammurabi entrenched and polished the system given to him by his ancestors and deployed an army of officials including judges. Hammurabi died in 1750 BC, passing on the reigns of what historians refer to as the First Babylonian Dynasty to his son Samsu-Iluna. The beauty of public laws was established and would be picked up with a vengeance by the Romans with their Twelve Tables . REFERENCES, RESEARCH AND FURTHER READING The Avalon Project : The Code of Hammurabi The Code of Hammurabi : Introduction Introduction Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. 1915 . . .[Hammurabi] was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi's reign ([1795-1750 BC]) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . . . . .

[B]y far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law. The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain. Indeed, all the heavier crimes are made punishable with death. Even if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be slain.

If the owner's son was killed, then the builder's son is slain. We can see where the Hebrews learned their law of "an eye for an eye." These grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact--with one striking exception. An accused person was allowed to cast himself into "the river," the Euphrates. Apparently the art of swimming was unknown; for if the current bore him to the shore alive he was declared innocent, if he drowned he was guilty. So we learn that faith in the justice of the ruling gods was already firmly, though somewhat childishly, established in the minds of men. Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, we find ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi's code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi's own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established. Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.

Hammurabi ...-1750 BC Architect of the Capitol, Washington DC Hammurabi, or Hammurapi, was the king of Babylon from approx. 1792 to 1750 BC. See also Code of Hammurabi: Ancient Babylonian Laws Code of Hammurabi: Ancient Babylonian Laws By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | September 3, 2013 05:46pm ET MORE The Code of Hammurabi is inscribed on this seven-foot basalt stele. The stele is now at the Louvre. Credit: jsp | Shutterstock The Code of Hammurabi refers to a set of rules or laws enacted by the Babylonian King Hammurabi (reign 1792-1750 B.C.). The code governed the people living in his fast-growing empire. By the time of Hammurabi's death, his empire included much of modern-day Iraq, extending up from the Persian Gulf along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

There are as many as 300 laws that discuss a wide range of subjects, including homicide, assault, divorce, debt, adoption, tradesman’s fees, agricultural practices, and even disputes regarding the brewing of beer. The code is best known from a stele made of black diorite, more than seven feet (2.25 meters) tall, that is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The stele was found at the site of Susa, in modern-day Iran, by excavators who were led by Jacques de Morgan at the beginning of the 20th century. Scholars believe that it was brought to Susa in the 12th century B.C. by an Elamite ruler who subsequently erased a portion of it in preparation for creating an inscription of his own. Originally, Hammurabi would have displayed the stele at the site of Sippar, in modern-day Iraq, likely in a prominent temple. In ancient times, Sippar was the home of the sun god Shamash, and the top of the stele shows an image of Hammurabi before this god, with rays coming from Shamash’s shoulders.

Scholars widely believe that other, now lost, steles would have existed in other cities in Babylon that were controlled by Hammurabi. After Hammurabi’s death, his system of laws became something of a classic in the ancient world, and scholars have found examples of them written on tablets, which were copied as late as the 5th century B.C., more than a millennium after Hammurabi’s death. The term “Code” of Hammurabi is a modern one, so named after the 19th-century “Code Napoleon.” Scholars today debate the meaning behind the stele that is now in the Louvre and whether the rules Hammurabi enacted truly represent a full law code. Regardless of the answers to these questions, Hammurabi himself states in the prologue to his laws that his right to make them was one given by the gods themselves. “Anu and Enlil ordained Hammurabi, a devout prince who fears the gods, to demonstrate justice within the land, to destroy evil and wickedness, to stop the mighty exploiting the weak, to rise like Shamash over the mass of humanity, illuminating the land …” (Translation from "The New Complete Code of Hammurabi," by H.

Dieter Viel, University Press of America, 2012) A harsh and unequal law Each law consists of a potential case followed by a prescribed verdict. The verdicts could be very harsh indeed, and Columbia University professor Marc van de Mieroop notes in his book "King Hammurabi of Babylon" (Blackwell Publishing, 2005) that the death penalty is listed as punishment no fewer than 30 times. It was the punishment given even for “the theft of temple or palace property or when a runaway slave is given refuge,” van de Mieroop writes. Furthermore, the punishments ordered were by no means uniform but rather depended on the social status of the accused and the accuser. The punishments were only “eye for an eye” if the two individuals involved were socially equal. For instance, van de Mieroop notes that if a member of the elite blinded a commoner or broke the commoner's bone, that elite person had to pay one pound of silver as penalty.

On the other hand, if a person struck someone who was of a higher social status, then that person can expect severe punishment: “If a member of the elite strike the cheek of a member of the elite who is of a higher social status than him, he shall be flogged in public with 60 strikes of an ox-whip,” reads one law (translation from van de Mieroop’s book). Women could not necessarily expect equal treatment either. One law reads, “if a finger has been pointed at a man’s wife because of some male but she has not been caught copulating with another male, she shall leap into the River for the sake of her husband,” (translation by H. Dieter Viel). On the other hand a woman could, depending on the circumstances, get an inheritance. There were laws protecting a woman in the event that her husband was taken captive in war and had to live with another man when her food ran out. There were also laws that governed the support a temple-woman should receive from her brothers after her father had died.

Burden on the accuser and judges In the laws, it is clear that not only is there a burden on the accused but also on the accuser should they be unable to prove their case. For instance, the penalty for homicide states that “if a man has made allegations against another man, and he has laid a charge of homicide against him but is unable to substantiate his guilt, the one who made the allegations against him shall be killed.” (Translation by H. Dieter Viel) Judges were also held to a certain standard in the laws. Hammurabi ruled a vast empire and would not have been able to rule on every case himself. Van de Mieroop notes that in the king’s absence, a committee of men from the communities involved could act as a judge in Hammurabi’s place. The penalties for a judge trying to change a sealed verdict was severe, “he shall pay 12 times the amount of the loss which had occasioned the trial,” reads the law in question. Detail of the Code of Hammurabi. The laws were chiselled into the basalt stele in cuneiform. Credit: jsp Shutterstock How were the laws formed?

Hammurabi was not the first ruler in the Middle East to write down laws. Dominique Charpin, a professor at École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, writes in his book "Writing, Law and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia" (University of Chicago Press, 2010) that scholars know of the existence of three law codes, set down by kings, that preceded Hammurabi. The oldest was written by Ur-Nammu, a king of Ur, who reigned 2111-2094 B.C., about three centuries before Hammurabi. “These older codes obviously inspired that of Hammurabi,” Charpin writes. In addition, Hammurabi would probably have drawn on his own personal experiences in putting together his laws, basing them in part on past cases that he had ruled on. A full law code? Scholars have noted problems in reading Hammurabi’s laws as a full law code in the modern sense. For instance, van de Mieroop notes that the code does not cover every dispute that could have arisen and contains inconsistencies.

“One law demands the death penalty when something is accepted for safekeeping without a proper document, because the recipient is a thief,” van de Mieroop writes. On the other hand, a related law simply states that “if a man gives goods for safekeeping without witnesses or a contract and they deny that he gave it, that case has no basis for a claim.” Van de Mieroop also notes that “in the extensive documentation of court cases judged in Hammurabi’s reign and afterwards there is no reference to a collection of laws that was the basis for a decision.” The purpose of the stele Another problem that researchers face is what was the purpose of the stele, now in the Louvre, that originally would have been displayed at Sippar? Charpin notes that, even if one could read, the stele would be difficult to use as a reference to look up a law. Van de Mieroop writes that the answer to this mystery appears to lie in the stele’s epilogue, a section of writing after the laws were given.

In it Hammurabi makes two main points, one is that anyone in his kingdom could come to the statue, see (or hear) the words on it and “understand his problem, and may he be content in his heart.” In other words it was a monument to the king’s sense of justice and a way to make his subjects feel better when they felt they had been wronged. The second point the epilogue makes is that the kings who succeed Hammurabi should not change or disregard these laws or try to alter the identity of the person who made them. If any future ruler does try this Hammurabi puts a lengthy curse on them. “Anu, the father of the gods, the one who designated me to rule, will surely remove from him the splendour of sovereignty, whether that man is a king or a lord or a governor or a person appointed to some other function, and he will smash his staff and curse his destiny…” part of Hammurabi’s curse reads (translation by H. Dieter Viel). In other words the stele was also a monument stating that Hammurabi’s sense of justice should rule over the land forever. Hammurabi - Ancient History Encyclopedia Hammurabi by Joshua J.

Mark published on 12 November 2011 Hammurabi (also known as Khammurabi and Ammurapi, reigned 1792-1750 BCE) was the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon , assumed the throne from his father, Sin-Muballit, and expanded the kingdom to conquer all of ancient Mesopotamia . The kingdom of Babylon comprised only the cities of Babylon, Kish, Sippar, and Borsippa when Hammurabi came to the throne but, through a succession of military campaigns, careful alliances made and broken when necessary, and political maneuvers, he held the entire region under Babylonian control by 1750 BCE and, according to his own inscriptions and letters and administrative documents from his reign, sought to improve the lives of those who lived under his rule. He is best known in the modern day for his law code which, although not the earliest code of laws, came to serve as a model for other cultures and is thought to have influenced the laws set down by Hebrew scribes, including those from the biblical Book of Exodus.

Hammurabi’s Code epitomized the law of retributive justice, better known as 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. Early History & Rise to Power The Amorites were a nomadic people who migrated across Mesopotamia from the coastal region of Eber Nari (modern day Syria ) at some point prior to the 3rd millennium BCE and by 1984 BCE were ruling in Babylon. The fifth king of the dynasty, Sin-Muballit (reigned 1812-1793 BCE), successfully completed many public works projects but was unable to expand the kingdom or compete with the rival city of Larsa to the south. Larsa was the most lucrative trade center on the Persian Gulf and the profits from this trade enriched the city and encouraged expansion so that most of the cities of the south were under Larsa’s control. Sin-Muballit led a force against Larsa but was defeated by their king Rim Sin I. At this point it is uncertain what exactly happened, but it seems that Sin-Muballit was compelled to abdicate in favor of his son Hammurabi.

Whether Rim Sin I thought Hammurabi would be less of a threat to Larsa is also unknown but, if so, he would be proven wrong. The historian Durant writes: Remove Ads Advertisement At the outset of [Babylonian history] stands the powerful figure of Hammurabi, conqueror and lawgiver through a reign of forty-three years. Primeval seals and inscriptions transmit him to us partially – a youth full of fire and genius, a very whirlwind in battle , who crushes all rebels, cuts his enemies into pieces, marches over inaccessible mountains, and never loses an engagement. Under him the petty warring states of the lower valley were forced into unity and peace, and disciplined into order and security by an historic code of laws (219). Initially, Hammurabi gave Rim Sin I no cause for alarm. He began his reign by centralizing and streamlining his administration, continuing his father’s building programs and enlarging and heightening the walls of the city. He instituted his famous code of laws (c. 1772 BCE), paid careful attention to the needs of the people, improved irrigation of fields and maintenance of the infrastructures of the cities under his control, while also building opulent temples to the gods.

At the same time he was setting his troops in order and planning his campaign for the southern region of Mesopotamia. The Conquest of Mesopotamia The historian Bertman notes how Hammurabi’s personal character worked to his advantage early in his reign: Hammurabi was an able administrator, an adroit diplomat, and canny imperialist, patient in the achievement of his goals. Upon taking the throne, he issued a proclamation forgiving people’s debts and during the first five years of his reign further enhanced his popularity by piously renovating the sanctuaries of the gods, especially Marduk , Babylon’s patron. Then, with his power at home secure and his military forces primed, he began a five-year series of campaigns against rival states to the south and east, expanding his territory (87). When the Elamites invaded the central plains of Mesopotamia from the east, Hammurabi allied himself with Larsa to defeat them. That accomplished, he broke the alliance and swiftly took the cities of Uruk and Isin, previously held by Larsa, by forming alliances with other city states such as Nippur and Lagash.

The alliances he made with other states, would repeatedly be broken when the king found it necessary to do so but, as rulers continued to enter into pacts with Hammurabi, it does not seem to have occurred to any of them that he would do the same to them as he had previously to others. Once Uruk and Isin were conquered, he turned and took Nippur and Lagash, and then conquered Larsa. A technique he seems to have used first in this engagement would become his preferred method in others when circumstances allowed: the damming up of water sources to the city to withhold them from the enemy until surrender or, possibly, withholding the waters through a dam and then releasing them to flood the city before then mounting an attack. This was a method previously used by Hammurabi’s father but with considerably less efficacy. Larsa was the last stronghold of Rim Sin and, with its fall, there was no other force to stand against the king of Babylon in the south. Remove Ads Advertisement With the southern part of Mesopotamia under control, Hammurabi turned north and west.

The Amorite Kingdom of Mari in Syria had long been an ally of Amorite Babylon, and Hammurabi continued friendly relations with the king Zimri-Lim (reigned 1755-1761 BCE). Zimri-Lim had led successful military campaigns through the north of Mesopotamia and, owing to the wealth generated from these victories, Mari had grown to be the envy of other cities with one of the largest and most opulent palaces in the region. Scholars have long debated why Hammurabi would break his alliance with Zimri-Lim but the reason seems fairly clear: Mari was an important, luxurious, and prosperous trade center on the Euphrates River and possessed great riches and, of course, water rights. Holding the city directly, instead of having to negotiate for resources, would be preferable to any ruler and certainly was so to Hammurabi. He struck swiftly at Mari in 1761 BCE and, for some reason, destroyed it instead of simply conquering it. This is a much greater mystery than why he would march against it in the first place. Other conquered cities were absorbed into the kingdom and then repaired and improved upon.

Why Mari was such an exception to Hammurabi’s rule is still debated by scholars, but the reason could be as simple as that Hammurabi wanted Babylon to be the greatest of the Mesopotamian cities and Mari was a definite rival for this honor. Zimri-Lim is thought to have been killed in this engagement, as he vanishes from the historical record in that same year. From Mari, Hammurabi marched on Ashur and took the region of Assyria and finally Eshnunna (also conquered by damming up of the waters) so that, by 1755 BCE, he ruled all of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi’s Code & the Care of the People Although Hammurabi spent a considerable amount of time on campaign, he made sure to provide for the people whose lands he ruled over. A popular title applied to Hammurabi in his lifetime was bani matim, 'builder of the land', because of the many building projects and canals he ordered constructed throughout the region. Documents from the time attest to the efficacy of Hammurabi’s rule and his sincere desire to improve the lives of the people of Mesopotamia.

These letters and administrative works (such as directives for the building of canals, food distribution, beautification and building projects, and legal issues) support the view which Hammurabi held of himself. The prologue to his famous law code begins: When the lofty Anu, King of the Annunaki and Bel, Lord of Heaven and Earth, he who determines the destiny of the land, committed the rule of all mankind to Marduk, when they pronounced the lofty name of Babylon, when they made it famous among the quarters of the world and in its midst established an everlasting kingdom whose foundations were firm as heaven and earth – at that time Anu and Bel called me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshipper of the gods, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people. Hammurabi, the governor named by Bel, am I, who brought about plenty and abundance (Durant, 219).

His famous law code is not the first such code in history (though it is often called so) but is certainly the most famous from antiquity prior to the code set down in the biblical books. The Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100-2050 BCE), which originated with either Ur -Nammu or his son Shulgi of Ur , is the oldest code of laws in the world. Hammurabi’s code differed from the earlier laws in significant ways. The historian Kriwaczek explains this, writing :

Question: Hammurabi was a king of which people in about 1750BC?
Answer: Babylon